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Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#51

Post by jokermatt999 »

megablast wrote: post #28
kgutteridge wrote: post #12

27 million iOS devices in the last 3 months, thats a very nice demographic to target that does not seem to be slowing down even with Androids rapid growth also gaining real momentum, I like being in mobile its certainly interesting!

Android is doing well, but we know that Apple users buy apps, not so much with android users.

I think part of the reason is not just the whole Android culture of free, but the poor Market experience. Once Google cleans up the Market, I think sales will increase. Perhaps not to iOS levels, but I would be surprised if there isn't a significant improvement.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#52

Post by benologist »

lukasb wrote: post #50
benologist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really. Right now Flash can be used to deploy for iOS finally thanks to Jobs' recent change of heart so essentially "Flash vs. iOS" is a solved problem (although it needs and will get more work from Adobe). Flash cops a bad rap but it is a massive platform for gaming with hundreds of millions of people choosing Flash games over every other form of entertainment and distraction all day, every day. Yesterday I…

Given that different OSes have different UI idioms and capabilities, it's not clear that "write once, deploy everywhere" is the right strategy.

That's pretty much what I said - it's a problem that Adobe, Mono, Unity etc. are hoping they can solve for us.

I don't think it'll ever be as simple as write once, deploy anywhere ... but write once, in one language, and deploy everywhere with minimal fuss is an admirable goal.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#53

Post by dasht »

Hehe.

You know the old saying "always darkest just before the storm"?

How's about: "always highest revenue just before the bubble bursts"?

Huge numbers of consumer leaders or consumer suckers have, in the past few years, bought lots of this line of products. Either a large number of them and non-buyers agree "Well, that was worth it" or, the opposite.

Place your bet.

(I'm not saying "droid wins" or "MSFT wins". I'm saying "the category of products is suspect for sustained growth ... Apple is just accelerating the rate at which we find out.")

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#54

Post by benologist »

glhaynes wrote: post #48
benologist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really. Right now Flash can be used to deploy for iOS finally thanks to Jobs' recent change of heart so essentially "Flash vs. iOS" is a solved problem (although it needs and will get more work from Adobe). Flash cops a bad rap but it is a massive platform for gaming with hundreds of millions of people choosing Flash games over every other form of entertainment and distraction all day, every day. Yesterday I…

Absolutely Flash still has a place - for some web games, HTML5 is a contender; but for most, Flash is still where it's at. But if, say, a company were making a new website for the car they're selling (or their restaurant!), Flash was the obvious way a year ago: a case didn't generally need to be made for it. But now, an in-touch manager should demand that a strong case be made for it before going down that path.

Pretty sure at this point video is the most likely reason a site people actually visit have Flash... I'm out of the loop these days but I don't even remember the last time I saw a pure-Flash site.

In terms of video the web at large will never migrate just as they didn't care about the various versions of HTML, the rise of "standards matter" etc, but I thought the largest sites that really matter made themselves compatible ages ago?

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#55

Post by ugh »

dasht wrote: post #53

Hehe. You know the old saying "always darkest just before the storm"? How's about: "always highest revenue just before the bubble bursts"? Huge numbers of consumer leaders or consumer suckers have, in the past few years, bought lots of this line of products. Either a large number of them and non-buyers agree "Well, that was worth it" or, the opposite. Place your bet. (I'm not saying "droid wins" or "MSFT wins". I'm s…

What would be the consequences of the “bubble bursting”?

I’m asking because there is really no way you can respond to a statement like that. What is your specific prediction? Will Apple be bankrupt in the short or long term? Will their iPhone sales decrease? Will they plateau? Will they grow slower than the Smartphone market? Are you only talking about the iPhone or maybe all iOS devices? Maybe the Mac, too?

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#56

Post by mattparcher »

dasht wrote: post #53

Hehe. You know the old saying "always darkest just before the storm"? How's about: "always highest revenue just before the bubble bursts"? Huge numbers of consumer leaders or consumer suckers have, in the past few years, bought lots of this line of products. Either a large number of them and non-buyers agree "Well, that was worth it" or, the opposite. Place your bet. (I'm not saying "droid wins" or "MSFT wins". I'm s…

To be honest, each time Apple has a record quarter (which has been quite often lately) folks doubt that they will sustain that growth, but they’re almost always proven wrong.

Where is Apple slowing? In Macs, which see only modest increases year over year, and iPods, which are in decline. But both of those categories are not losing to competitors — they are being cannibalized by Apple itself, who is busy selling incredible numbers of iPhones and iPads.

If you’re wondering whether Apple’s customers are happy, Apple just earned the highest-ever score in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, in large part due to the iPad: http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100921/ipad-boosts-appl...

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#57

Post by kenjackson »

jsz0 wrote: post #49
kenjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the term "cloud" and "internet" generally mean different things. The cloud refers to services sitting on endpoints that you don't maintain (or likely don't own either). The internet generally refers to the communication infrastructure between endpoints. You can be all in on the internet and not care about the cloud. The opposite is more difficult though. Also Steve's 7" answer seemed odd. The iPod Touch is a…

I think his point was the size of the human finger creates some hard limitations for multi-touch UI design. So at any resolution a 7" tablet isn't going to offer the physical space required to significantly increase the number of tap targets on screen. As a result you're probably going to end up with applications that look, feel and operate more like a SmartPhone app though with less scrolling & resizing. I believe t…

OK. I get what you're saying, but I think it is BS myself. And to be perfectly honest I think Steve thinks its BS too. And they'll be working on it until the day he says, "A lot of people have said 'Steve, a 7" tablet would be great'. Well today we have something a lot better than great".

Anyone who thinks you can't do a differentiated multitouch 7" UI is either lying or incompetent. Steve is clearly not the latter. My prediction is that within the next 18 months they release a 7" iPad. Sooner if a 7" Android tablet takes off.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#58

Post by aaronblohowiak »

dasht wrote: post #53

Hehe. You know the old saying "always darkest just before the storm"? How's about: "always highest revenue just before the bubble bursts"? Huge numbers of consumer leaders or consumer suckers have, in the past few years, bought lots of this line of products. Either a large number of them and non-buyers agree "Well, that was worth it" or, the opposite. Place your bet. (I'm not saying "droid wins" or "MSFT wins". I'm s…

Anecdotally, Apple has a lot of repeat customers. I know lots of people that have purchased Iphone, iphone 3g, 3gs, 4g, ipad, macbook pro (often one work and one personal.) Once you get into the apple ecosystem, things are nice. interoperability is another issue altogether (and dont get me started on the old apple tvs)

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#59

Post by glhaynes »

kenjackson wrote: post #57
jsz0 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his point was the size of the human finger creates some hard limitations for multi-touch UI design. So at any resolution a 7" tablet isn't going to offer the physical space required to significantly increase the number of tap targets on screen. As a result you're probably going to end up with applications that look, feel and operate more like a SmartPhone app though with less scrolling & resizing. I believe t…

OK. I get what you're saying, but I think it is BS myself. And to be perfectly honest I think Steve thinks its BS too. And they'll be working on it until the day he says, "A lot of people have said 'Steve, a 7" tablet would be great'. Well today we have something a lot better than great". Anyone who thinks you can't do a differentiated multitouch 7" UI is either lying or incompetent. Steve is clearly not the latter.…

It's just hard for me to see what value a 7" iPad would bring. Just as Steve said, I can't pocket it, so I still have to have a smartphone. And if I'm going to use something other than my smartphone (which Steve went out of his way today to say that most iPad buyers already have), why would I want to use something only slightly bigger? If anything, the 10" iPad is too small.

The concern isn't that Apple couldn't make a variant of iOS run well on a 7" tablet: it's that the product itself doesn't really have a purpose for being, and that it's asking too much for app makers to target (well) three different sizes that are so close to each other.

(Now, is the current iPad too heavy? Yes. I strongly expect the next iPad revision to be 9.7" and 1/3rd lighter.)

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#60

Post by kenjackson »

glhaynes wrote: post #59
kenjackson wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. I get what you're saying, but I think it is BS myself. And to be perfectly honest I think Steve thinks its BS too. And they'll be working on it until the day he says, "A lot of people have said 'Steve, a 7" tablet would be great'. Well today we have something a lot better than great". Anyone who thinks you can't do a differentiated multitouch 7" UI is either lying or incompetent. Steve is clearly not the latter.…

It's just hard for me to see what value a 7" iPad would bring. Just as Steve said, I can't pocket it, so I still have to have a smartphone. And if I'm going to use something other than my smartphone (which Steve went out of his way today to say that most iPad buyers already have), why would I want to use something only slightly bigger? If anything, the 10" iPad is too small. The concern isn't that Apple couldn't make…

I disagree almost across the board with you. The 10" iPad is just too big for me to feel comfortable carrying around (and yes, it is too heavy. That is the main reason I returned mine).

The problem today is that I have a phone that is really too small to be super useful. I've made considerable concessions, but really browsing and apps on the iPhone kind of suck. It's just they suck a LOT less than phone apps used to. And given the relative infrequency for which I talk on the phone, why do I want to have the phone drive the size of this device?

At about 7" I have an adequate mobile experience, and I can stop using my phone for things it really isn't very good at.

With that said, I'll take a 10" tablet at .75 pounds, which folds in half to the width of something like the Samsung Galaxy tab today (and of course, unfolded there is no visible seam).

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